Most of us would say yes, but for four retired federal politicians, it just wasn’t enough.
The former MPs – Labor’s Tony Lamb, Barry Cunningham and Barry Cohen and Liberal John Moore – failed this week in a High Court bid to increase their pension entitlements – already valued at between $80,000 and $120,000 a year – even further.
The quartet made the challenge after Government changes to the pension scheme for politicians elected before 2004 slowed the growth of their allowances.
‘An unlawful acquisition’
Their case? They claimed the changes were ‘an unlawful acquisition of their property’ by the Commonwealth under section 51 of the constitution.
It’s the same argument made famous in the classic Aussie flick ‘The Castle’ when developers wanted to seize the Kerrigan family home to turn it into an airport.
The ex-pollies also wanted their Life Gold Pass back, which gave them unlimited business-class domestic flights. This had been cut back to 10 return flights a year in 2012.
A win would have benefited up to 350 retired MP’s, including the recently retired Bronwyn Bishop, adding to the $40 million a year bill we taxpayers already foot for the scheme.
Tell ‘em they’re dreaming
But on Wednesday the Court ruled unanimously that the changes were legal because the entitlements were “inherently liable to variation”, with a majority also rejecting their Life Gold Pass case.
The Court also pointed out each plaintiff had already received more from their allowances than they had ever put in themselves – Mr Lamb for instance paid just $35,297 into his super during his nine-years in Parliament. Since he retired, he’s collected over $1.3 million – not a bad payday in anyone’s books.
The four were also ordered to pay the thousands of dollars in costs for the long-running case.
Now the Federal Government has announced they are set to introduce a bill that will kill off the Gold Pass for good, saving taxpayers around $1.5 million a year.
A sign the “age of entitlement” is over?
Do you think we need to scrap the old pension scheme? Let us know in the comments below.
